Duke-UNC women tee it up Thursday evening
Can Duke pull off big road win?
The first installment of the Battle of the Blues will take place Thursday night in Carmichael Auditorium, as the women square off at 7.
Duke and North Carolina are almost mirror images of each other. Duke is 3-0 in the ACC, 12-3 overall. North Carolina is 1-2 in the ACC, 13-3 overall. The losses were 82-76 to undefeated Georgia Tech, 76-66 to Notre Dame and 69-58 to UConn, not a bad loss among them.
But they don’t have any wins as impressive as Duke’s wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma.
Duke is ranked 14th, North Carolina 19th in the AP poll.
Both teams are defense first squads with lots of depth designed to wear down lesser equipped opponents.
Will Duke freshman Toby Fournier be among that platoon of Blue Devils?
Fournier took a wicked hit to the face late in Duke’s win at Boston College last week and didn’t dress out last Sunday against Pitt. I asked Kara Lawson if she had an update on Fournier’s condition during Lawson’s Tuesday ZOOM and all she said was “I do not have a Toby update.”
The Tar Heels have 6-3 veteran Maria Gagdeng anchoring the interior and veteran sharpshooter Lexi Donarskl sniping away from downtown.
Gakdeng is a senior, Donarski a grad student.
But Alyssa Ustby is the Armando Bacot analog. She’s 6-1, this is her fifth year and versatility is her forte. She can guard multiple positions and averages 11.4 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.
But she’s not much of a threat too far away from the basket, shooting 29.6% from beyond the arc, 58.5% from the line. Gakdeng is not a new-fangled post. She’s made an eye-opening 72.7% from the field but hasn’t attempted a single 3-pointer.
In fact, other than Donarski (37.4%) and Reynia Kelly (48.5% in limited usage), they don’t beat you from downtown.
Run Donarski and Kelly off the 3-point line and take your chances with everyone else.
Carolina only turns it over an average of 11 times per game. Lawson says the goal of her defense isn’t necessarily to force turnovers but rather bad possessions. But Duke loves to get out and run off live-ball turnovers and, without belaboring the point, you can’t do that without forcing some live-ball turnovers.
Duke is coming off two impressive defensive performances, 86-59 over Boston College and 69-31 over Pitt.
“We haven’t been a great defensive team, consistently all year,” Lawson says. “I do think we are improving, that we’re getting better, just with our positioning, our angles, our attention to detail, the game plan, understanding plays and personnel.
“You see repeat actions. We’re seeing repeat actions, or at least similar ones and they’re able to get a second look at it, or a third look at it and play it a little bit better than we did the first time.”
Duke and Carolina have had some defensive slugfests in recent years, scores like 45-41 or 44-40.
The teams split last season, Duke winning 68-60 in overtime in Cameron, North Carolina 63-59 in Carmichael.
I don’t expect a game in the 40s. Duke needs offense from Reigan Richardson and Ashlon Jackson, of course. But Taina Mair is playing point guard at a high level and 6-3 sophomore Delaney Thomas has made 28 of her last 33 field-goal attempts over a six-game span.
Thomas had 19 points and seven rebounds in Duke’s win last season and a repeat would go a long way to ensuring a victory.
“Delaney’s been a key cog to our team the entire season,” Lawson says. “She’s very dependable and she has an understanding of what we’re trying to do on both ends.”